I have been writing about the intersection of science and ambition for over 20 years. I am currently the Editor in Chief at Sandisk (disclosure: I write about computing architectures, but am rigorous about avoiding conflicts of interest.It's my promise to you.). I've also worked at Eastwick Communications, Greentech Media, CNET and CMP. My work has also been published in Forbes, the New York Times, National Geographic, Wired and other places and I speak somewhat regularly at conferences. I've visited the Orkney Islands to study wave power, filtered through reams of SEC documents, quizzed Elon Musk about EVs, and volunteered twice to be electrocuted. All for the sake of entertaining readers. One summer, I also gave out coupons for free nickels at a casino in Reno.

That is the operative idea behind eRecyclingCorps, which announced a whopping $105 million Series C investment today from existing investors like Kleiner, Perkins, Caufield and Byers and new investor Silver Lake Kraftwerk.

The company essentially recycles old phones with the assistance of carriers and retailers. Let’s say you dropped your Samsung Galaxy 4 into the toilet and it stops working. You go to one of the 16,000 outlets nationwide that participate in eRecyclingCorps programs for a new phone and the clerk offers you $20 for the old phone or $50 toward a new one with the same carrier. Why not, you reply.

ERecyclingCorps then tries to refurbish the phone and resell it to another customer. Often, older phones from U.S. consumers end up in India and Mexico. In India, cell customers on average only spent $7 per month on phone service, eRecyclingCorps CEO David Edmonson told me in 2011 when the company raised a $35 million Series B. 95 percent of phones get refurbished, the company claims. When a phone can’t be refurbished, it gets crushed and recycled for raw materials.

Of course, it’s great for carriers too, which can now offer low-priced iPhones to customers.

In 2012, roughly 1.7 billion mobile phones containing 453 million pounds of materials were manufactured, so you can see there’s a lot of material to work with. ERecyclingCorps–whose name, with two words, the extra ‘e’ and double inter-capitalization looks like it passed through the shredder one time itself—has taken in some 17 million phones since 2009 on trade-ins.

Don’t get dollar signs in your eyes yet. While eRecyclingCorps claims one manufacturer paid out over $75 million to customers in a single year, my personal experience in perusing e-waste trade-in sites is that most products don’t net squat. Unless it’s a hot product that’s only been on the market 12 months or less, you often don’t get much. A lot of products have zero trade-in value. The company declined to comment on pricing, but in the past said bounties range from $250 to zero.

Cynics could argue that you’re just allowing an upstart to undercut established phone makers: instead of factories and employees, eRecyclingCorps relies on your casual generosity. But look at the bright side. You are keeping it out of your personal landfill, i.e. that desk drawer jammed packed with old charger cords, laptop power supplies and other stuff you don’t use anymore. You’re also cutting down the need to harvest virgin materials. The average TV has about 10 pounds of recyclable aluminum. Recycling Rare Earth Materials, a relatively new frontier in recycling, can wean our dependence off Chinese mines.

And you’re probably helping someone in an emerging nation move into the digital world. Unlike the average American, who keeps cell phones for less than two years, citizens in emerging nations often have to keep them—and laptops and other appliances—for several years.

Post Your Comment

Post Your Reply

Forbes writers have the ability to call out member comments they find particularly interesting. Called-out comments are highlighted across the Forbes network. You'll be notified if your comment is called out.